MINSK, June 05, 21:23 /ITAR-TASS/. Belarus is ready to cooperate with Ukraine’s new authorities, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday while meeting with speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko and heads of a number of Russian regions.

“Ukraine has elected a new president. I think we will cooperate with the new president, with the new authorities, because our people are living there, people like us, kind and labourous, but who found themselves in such a situation. We can ignore them but it will hurt them more,” he said.

Lukashenko stressed that closer interregional cooperation would be the best basis and the most powerful driving force for any integration in the post-Soviet space. He said it would be right to involve in this process Kazakhstan’s and Ukraine’s regions.

The Belarusian leader also spoke about the West’s sanctions against Russia. “No sanction in the present-day world is able to crush Russia,” he said. “We need another centre of gravity, another centre of pillar in the world to ultimately restore a multi-polar world. The world cannot rest on a single pillar rocking from side to side, this is our principled position so much disliked by the West.” Ignoring this “they only help us to revive and gain a stronger foothold,” he stressed.